First off.... check to make sure you have enough RAM, (what the min. requirements for the game) if you have the min. only... check the programs running in the background.. believe it or not those can kill system performance, and last be sure to defrag often... to check what programs are running push Ctrl+ Alt+ Del.... go to PROCESS tab and end programs that you dont want running but dont touch "network, local service", "System" and "explorer.exe" after ending the processes, and the defrag try the game... hopefully that helps...